Ulster sings to an old, old tune

Former Northern Ireland correspondent Derek Brown profiles Willie McCrea and examines the worrying implications for the peace process of the Democratic Unionist party MP's South Antrim byelection victory

Reverend William McCrea's victory in the South Antrim byelection is a severe blow not only to First Minister David Trimble, but to the power-sharing peace process.

McCrea, who was MP for Mid-Ulster from 1983 to 1997, when he was beaten by Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, scraped back to parliament by just 822 votes in a low turn-out. But the victory of the Democratic Unionist party candidate ominously underlines the divisions in Ulster unionism, and the general lack of enthusiasm in the loyalist community for the Good Friday peace agreement.

The result was also a victory for reaction and deep-died conservatism. McCrea has been roistering around the wilder fringes of unionism since the early 1970s. An ordained minister, he has always been a stalwart supporter of Reverend Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party and perennial thorn in the flesh of would-be peacemakers.

The new MP is a fundamentalist, both political and religious. He is Ireland's best known gospel singer, specialising in a curious blend of saccharine assurances of God's love, and blood-and-thunder warnings of divine wrath against unbelievers.

At campaign meetings in the 1970s, when this reporter was covering Northern Ireland, he had a habit of breaking into his own speeches by grabbing a guitar and warbling the praises of the Lord. He has a distinctive quavering, high-pitched delivery well-suited to the evangelistic pulpit, but slightly disconcerting on the political stump.

"The only answer to Ulster's problems," he used to proclaim, his voice rising to a crescendo, "is THE ROPE!"

But McCrea, and all that he represents, has to be taken extremely seriously. The DUP victory in what was once a super-safe seat for the Ulster Unionists, casts a long shadow over the power-sharing executive in Belfast.

The byelection could not have been worse timed for Trimble, who must preside over his party's annual conference next month. Almost certainly, he will be challenged - again - for the leadership, by one of the rightwingers chafing against power-sharing.

The first minister will be looking to Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson for concessions, to prop up his suddenly precarious hold on his own party. What he would dearly love would be postponement, or better still cancellation, of plans to reform the Royal Ulster Constabulary. But even that might not appease the resurgent No Surrender tendency in unionism.

The challenge could come from the Rev Martin Smyth, who ran Trimble desperately close in last year's leadership election. Another would-be standard bearer of the right, Jeffrey Donaldson MP, has already called on Trimble to withdraw from the executive.

Paisley, the old warhorse of Ulster politics, is already bellowing with righteous triumphalism. "I think Mr Trimble is finished, absolutely finished," he gloated after the South Antrim result.

One of the minor ironies of the byelection is that the losing UUP candidate David Burnside - another survivor from the turbulent 1970s - is less than wholly committed himself to power-sharing. If Trimble is brought low by the South Antrim debacle, the ambitious Burnside could be one of those jostling for position.